Fixing Fake SD SDHC Cards, Is It Possible? What Are The Problems And Challenges? What Software To Use To Test For Flash Memory Fake Chips. Is There A Free Download To Check Flash Drives And Memory Cards Size?

Posted by techchips on July 13, 2011

Do you suspect you have a fake memory card? Is the class speed under performing? Are you losing your files and experiencing data corruption from flash memory chips? These are important signs for fake memory chips altered to lie about their true size. A lot of people call it “Hacked Memory”. The black market is strong, over 1,000,000 flash memory chips are upgraded and manipulated every month and many brand name manufacturers such as: SanDisk, Transcend, Sony, ADATA, Kingston Technologies, RITEK and Lexar have been impacted.

Do You Feel A Bit Silly Or Foolish About Having Bought A Fake Memory Card?

Step One – Identifying The Real Size Of Your Memory Card

The first step is not to check it’s speed class, it is to verify if you can write files to the advertised capacity for your flash memory card. The best software is H2testw. It works on Windows 2000, XP, Server 2003, Server 2008, Vista, Windows 7 operating systems. If you have Linux, you can use the alternate F3 By Michel Machado.

Both programs are free. A lot of hard work and effort went into creating them, the motive for the effort? To help people detect fake memory chips, to find out the real capacity with software easy to use.

SOSFakeFlash coined H2testw the gold standard in detecting fake memory chips in 2008. for good reason. It still is the standard, the best program out there. Herald Bögeholz wrote it, maintains the copyright but for the best interest of consumers made it free! c’t Magazin für Computertechnik at www.heise.de hosts it for free. Germany has played an important and unselfish role in helping people test their flash memory chips in the Windows operating system environment to ensure they did not acquire fake capacity chips. If you wonder what users really think about the H2testw software see the poll in the SOSFakeFlash article!

For Linux users, Michel Machado worked hard to write a flash memory testing program, he called it F3.

If either F3 By Michel Machado or H2testw reports to you a size smaller then advertised capacity, you have a problem. If it is more than 1GB smaller then the advertised size you know you bought a fake and not a sub standard grade flash memory chip.

A) Windows Operating Systems

The software is found on the internet under a lot of search terms for it’s name: ChipGenius, Chip Genus,Chip Genuis, Chipguinus, Chip Genius. Useful when the flash memory card chip is good, useless when a flash memory card has been hacked! It works well for mp players or usb flash drives if the correct VID and PID was encoded. Unfortunately for flash memory cards, the usb reader usually detected instead of the card so people look for the wrong software. You can’t open a flash memory card to identify it’s usb controller chip, you would destroy the card if you did.

You can learn more about fixing fake flash memory at InspectorTech’s FixFakeFlash site. The FAQ is comprehensive. To understand more on the VID and PID reported by ChipGenius you should read this classic article:

A lot of people who fight against fake flash memory, do not like Chip Genius and suspect it being spy ware. In fact some use sanitized computers, virtual ram operating systems when they run it. Perhaps a little paranoid maybe but the fact they do it says a lot.

A) Linux Operating Systems

There isn’t a software to help you identify the VID or PID we are aware of for Linux that works like Chip Genuis. In fact it is not necessary according to people who repaired fake memory cards. So skip to step three.

Step Three – Repairing Your Fake Flash Memory Card

Unlike mp players or usb flash drives, you are handicapped in trying to find software to repair flash memory cards. The usb card readers or slots in computers interfere if you use Chipguinus as your identification software. So in trying to identify low level reformatting software rule out information provided by Chip Genius.

We advise you to stay away from any internet literature offered for sale promising you they have a magic solution. In the Windows operating system arena, those secret recipes promote making a primary partition equivalent to the size H2testw reported as being good capacity.

Windows Operating Systems

A) Operating System Disk

There have been a lot of successful reports in repairing fake memory cards using a genuine operating system installation disk for Windows from Windows 2000 and higher.

It involves removing the existing hard disk from a computer or laptop, booting from the operating system disk, then reformatting the memory card. It appears to be very successful. You can’t use an OEM disk provided with your computer or laptop, it must be a full Windows operating system CD or DVD.

How many people have that? Very few.

How many people know how to disconnect or remove the hard disk in their computer or laptop? Very Few.

You have to be a serious computer geek to know what you are doing and to be able to take the risks. It is beyond most computer users and for a single flash memory card, just not worth the effort. However, if you know a computer technical or are have a sympathetic computer repair shop near by you might like to as them for assistance. They may have a computer available that is doesn’t have a hard disk installed along with a genuine Windows operating system disk. It doesn’t take a lot to capture their curiosity and interest for the experiment, it tends to be something they itch to try, a new challenge.

The alternative option is to use the information provided by H2testw to build a fence. That is, create a primary partition on the flash memory card slightly less then the real capacity reported by H2testw . The balance of the capacity the windows operating system sees as unallocated. You must always remember never to touch or format the additional unallocated capacity, because it is the capacity that is fake, it does not really exist! If people own Acronis Disk Director software, they will use it instead.

Can the “build a fence” method work to keep read/writes in the real flash memory capacity if you have no other options? It can work, provided you don’t try to reformat it or delete partitions. If you flash memory card device reformats, then you could be back to square one, a fake capacity will reappear.

The build a fence, or partitioning method does not deal with the real issue. For memory cards the real problem is the information recorded in the usb controller chip for the flash memory card. That is where the digital alteration really exists. The partitioning method does not address this issue, it does not purge or clear it. Instead it lives with the fake information in the controller chip, it gets around it, by creating partitions to fool the operating systems once again, just making a primary partition slightly smaller then the size reported good by testing software and dumping the fake part into unallocated and ignored.

This is the method most promoted in PDF guides sold on eBay and elsewhere for profit. There is no need to spend more money on a guide. We are explaining the method and for free!

And advising you if you chose this route, it is a work around, it is not the ultimate solution to correcting your flash memory card’s storage capacity.

It works for a lot of people. The important thing to remember is that you did not fix the fake memory card, you build a fence to surround the real capacity and hopefully your device is smart enough to only see the capacity in the good area you built. We have to stress this! According to InspectorTech at FixFakeFlash and SOSFakeFlash too many people see this as the solution and also believe it is the correction. It isn’t. It is a work around to deal with a difficult situation. Flash memory cards are the hardest to repair under Windows, option A) Operating System Disk has better results, but unfortunately is not accessible to most Windows users.

If you need the memory card for important information or photos, don’t consider this method. We repeat, if the data matters, do not chose the build a fence option as your repair!

Linux Operating Systems

If you are a Linux user, you are a cut above most computer users. The chances are, you spent the time and effort in learning about an operating system in exchange for having a free operating system with a lot of flexibility You are possibly less conventional and more curious in nature.

If you are a Linux user who made the effort to get under the hood and learn, you have a pretty good chance of repairing you fake memory card!

You can contact the author Michel Machado to exchange your results and offer suggestions. If his fix works for you, make sure you leave a comment on this article: Linux H2testw Alternative Program Called F3 By Michel Machado to encourage others and to promote how Linux is more powerful in solving your fake flash memory blues than any Microsoft Windows operating system will ever be!

Discouraged In Fixing Fake Flash Memory Cards?

Did this article discourage you? Give you a real headache? It’s based on more than three years of research, we also belong to the FrankenFlash Project. If you are feeling discouraged, perhaps you should consider a few things before you continue to pursue the idea of fixing a fake memory card and restoring it to real capacity.

If you did not pay a lot of money for your fake memory card, your effort is probably better spend getting a refund and exposing the seller who sold it to you.

The dirty and hidden truth? Fake memory cards are the hardest hacked flash memory to restore to their original capacity. There has been a lot of success for usb flash drives and mp players. For memory cards it is ugly and nasty. Repairing and restoring flash memory cards have the lowest success rates.

If you pay a lot for your fake memory card? Does this mean you should make the effort to repair it?

That depends. It depends on the real capacity reported by either H2testw or F3 By Michel Machado. If the real capacity is small and you paid a lot for you fake, you are better off to try and get your refund too, make the biggest and most nasty sink you can on the internet against your seller and for the issue. It can give you some personal satisfaction and it can help other people from making your mistake.

If you find out your flash memory card has only 2GB or 4GB real capacity and that is usually the card for fakes, it is just too much effort to repair. What does a 2GB or 4GB real capacity flash memory card cost where you live? The price you paid and the real capacity found should help you decide if it is worth your time and effort.

Do You Feel A Bit Silly Or Foolish About Having Bought A Fake Memory Card?

Did you know that some of the strongest supporters of SOSFakeFlash were victims of fake memory cards? Yes, they understand your confusion and your frustration. A lot of people are wiser about fake mp players and usb flash drives, unfortunately the same can not be said for buyers of flash memory cards! Currently they are the largest consumer group of flash memory fraud on the internet!

On eBay memory card fraud is bad, memory card buyers are in the highest risk category for flash memory fraud. If it wasn’t a raging problem, why are so many people searching for information to test them and fix them to their real capacity?

There are some good souls out there, former victims who make an effort to patrol on eBay for memory cards and contact buyers who left positive feedback to test their cards. Where do they do it? Well, how would you feel if you went on vacation and discovered most of your photos disappeared to fake memory land. Gone. Memories vanished with no hope of recovering them because they are not on the flash memory card. They were recorded in fake space so they do not exist. It hurts. Forget about the money, will the seller send you on a new vacation to recapture your lost moments?

Currently no group in the FrankenFlash project sees the fake memory card listings on eBay decreasing. The demand for memory cards is increasing and sellers will be happy to oblige with low prices for fake capacity. According to FlashChipTutor at FlashDriveFacts, sellers are spawning multiple ids to capture the low cost market.

To try and deal with the hugh number of fraudulent sellers on eBay for flash memory cards, there is only one possible solution. Every frauded buyer who discovers they purchased a fake capacity memory card must attempt to contact a least a few buyers who left positive feedback. If they do, then these sellers will spend more time setting up new ids then being able to list as eBay will suspend their ids one after another. It cuts into and damages their profit and it reduces the number of victims.

And if there are less victims for fake memory cards?

Less people will have to hunt desperately on the internet looking for solutions to try and repair their flash memory cards! If you testing proves you bought a fake memory card, don’t you wish somebody had sent you an email warning you to test before you used it?

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RMPrepUSB will quickly test your USB Flash Drive capacity – it takes a few minutes compared to a few hours if using H2TESTW (but it is not as thorough as H2TESTW). SO use RMPRepUSB first and if it passes use H2TESTW. If RMPrepUSb Size Test fails then you have a fake!